me fer me, I jest set down, kerplunk!
An' squashed 'em flat--an' picked them up--an' packed 'em in my trunk!
'N then I TWIST MY TRUNK OFF, an' throwed it all away--
You better let me go, Louise--I MIGHT do that to-day!

You won't? All right--you'd BETTER DID, for one time long ago,
Before I gotter be a boy, I was a BEAR--oh, no--
I was a SNAKE--a yaller snake, an' I was TEN MILES long,
'N all I et was nurse girls--yes, I DID, although 'twas wrong.
That was a million years ago, but something--inside me--
Tells me I'm goin' to be a snake AGAIN--jest watch and see!
You don't believe a word I say? Well, I don't care--I DO--
How could I 'MEMBER all these things, unlessen they was true?

WILLING TO TRADE

The doctor brung a baby up to our house last week--
A little bit of thing it is--but my! it's gotta squeak!
It makes a noise that's twice as big as you expect to hear,
And then ma says, "Go right away--you mustn't tease him, dear!"
She seems to like it more than me--
But I ain't jealous, no, siree!

I told the boys, and Billy Black, he says, "Well, that is nice,
But I would rather have my dog--they're worth more at the price,
For pa says babies cost a lot to feed and dress and train,
And Rover, he is smart, he is, and gotter splendid brain!"
I kinder feel that very way--
But ma says baby's come to stay.

Frank Brown has got a billygoat that pulls him on his sled,
And Kenneth's got a ponycart; but pa looked cross and said
I mustn't talk so foolish when I asked him if I might
Go trade our baby for a pony or a goat, last night.
I s'pose he knew _nobody'd_ trade
A goat for any baby made!
I wouldn't mind it, I believe, if any boy I knew
Would _envy_ me for what we've got, but that's what they won't do!

THE LONELY CHILD

It takes so long to grow up big and get to be a man,
I wisht sometimes that I'd been born as old as Mary Ann;
(She is the cook, and she's so old her teeth come out at night),
'Cause then I wouldn't want a boy to play with or to fight.
But now I go upstairs and down
And get in people's way,
Because there ain't _no_ children here
To play with every day.

The house next door is big and fine, but nobody lives there;
And all the winders, like big eyes, just stare at me, and stare,
Until I run back in our house and 'tend like I can't see,
And feel my way around the rooms till ma, she says to me:
"My goodness, Rob, what is this game?
Pretending you are blind?
De